seventeen
and sixteen years of age,--were old enough to remember and to regret all
that they had lost, to hate the idea of Abolition, and to feel that the
world had nothing left for them but what was to be got by opposition to
the laws of the Union, which was now hateful to them. They were both
handsome, and, in spite of the sufferings of their State, an attempt had
been made to educate them like gentlemen. But no career of honour had
been open to them, and they had fallen by degrees into dishonour,
dishonesty, and brigandage.

The elder of these, when he was still little more than a stripling, had
married Ella Beaufort, the daughter of another ruined planter in his
State. She had been only sixteen when her father died, and not seventeen
when she married Ferdinand Lefroy. It was she who afterwards came to
England under the name of Mrs. Peacocke.

Mr. Peacocke was Vice-President of the College at Missouri when he first
saw her, and when he first became acquainted with the two brothers, each
of whom was called Colonel Lefroy. Then there arose a great scandal in
the city as to the treatment which the wife received from her husband. He
was about to go away South, into Mexico, with the view of pushing his
fortune there with certain desperadoes, who were maintaining a perpetual
war against the authorities of the United States on the borders of Texas,
and he demanded that his wife should accompany him. This she refused to
do, and violence was used to force her. Then it came to pass that certain
persons in St. Louis interfered on her behalf, and among these was the
Reverend Mr. Peacocke, the Vice-President of the College, upon whose
feelings the singular beauty and dignified demeanour of the woman, no
doubt, had had much effect. The man failed to be powerful over his wife,
and then the two brothers went away together. The woman was left to
provide for herself, and Mr. Peacocke was generous in the aid he gave to
her in doing so.

It may be understood that in this way an intimacy was created, but it must
not be understood that the intimacy was of such a nature as to be
injurious to the fair fame of the lady. Things went on in this way for
two years, during which Mrs. Lefroy's conduct drew down upon her
reproaches from no one. Then there came tidings that Colonel Lefroy had
perished in making one of those raids in which the two brothers were
continually concerned. But which Colonel Lefroy had perished? If it were